Pimp My Mix: Part II

[Dkerwood]

So I finally got back the tentative mixes on the four tunes we recorded in December. The idea is that I take a listen, give my buddy a list of things I like and don't like, and he'll tweak that for the final mixes.

As always, I thought I'd run them past the good people of TB. I already have a few comments on them, but I don't want to bias anyone.

One More Time
Love Song
I'm Gone

I'm still waiting for song 4 to arrive in my Gmail inbox, and I'll post it as soon as I have it.

Thanks!

[Justice]

the one thing that really stands out to me...is that the drums don't stand out. They are pretty much buried in the mix and have no "umph".

If I were mixing that I would go back and completely remix the drums - eq, compression, everything.

[Ricky Daion]

Originally Posted by Justice

the one thing that really stands out to me...is that the drums don't stand out. They are pretty much buried in the mix and have no "umph".

If I were mixing that I would go back and completely remix the drums - eq, compression, everything.

I agree. The snare sounds like a cardboard box. You should have a solid kick and crunchy snare at the very least. A little more definition for the bass would be good as well. Just my opinion

[derrico1]

I just gave One More Time a quick listen.

I'd suggest that whoever did your mix was a bit overzealous in creating room for the vocal by scooping the mids out of all the instruments.

Not to cause problems in your band, but your drummer doesn't sound quite tight and right, either. I would re-track rather than re-mix, if budget allows.

[Dkerwood]

Interesting comments so far. Derrico, you're absolutely right about the drummer, but that's about as tight and right as he gets. :-) Sometimes a dedicated band member is more important than a solid musician, you know? ;-)

My biggest concern is that EVERYTHING seems to lack top end sizzle. On the last day of recording, we were trying to record a tambourine part, but for some reason, his setup couldn't capture the jingle - just the hit. I have the same microphone setup as he does, and use the same program, so I figured that the issue was in his FW interface (I record through the soundcard). We recorded some tambourine just using Windows Sound Recorder, and the highs were back! Leads me to believe that there's some rogue master setting in his Adobe Audition funking up all the incoming audio EQ.

I brought this to his attention, pointing out that all the vocals, drums, etc would NEED that top end. "I can fix it," was his reply. I'm tempted to have him send me all the raw files to see if it's a playback EQ issue rather than a recording EQ issue.

I may try tweaking the mixdown files just to see what I can accomplish as well, although you can't boost frequencies that aren't there...

Keep the comments coming!